Edwin McCain interview

(originally appeared in NineVolt / photo courtesy of Yahoo! LAUNCH)

Not so much in the “he’s a scream, he’s a real card” sense of the word, although he’s that as well. No, Edwin McCain is actually panic inducing…particularly when he calls you almost a half-hour earlier than he’s supposed to.

And, indeed, he did call back. It was actually only 25 minutes later…but that put him calling right at the time he was supposed to be calling, anyway.

McCain was phoning from Chicago, ready to chat about his new record, Far From Over, scheduled for release on Lava/Atlantic on June 19^th. Anyone who’s a longtime fan of McCain’s work will notice that the album’s a relatively significant stylistic departure.

“We kinda took it all back,” McCain explains. “We’d been using producers and we were being a little less hands-on instead of really making it our own deal. So this album, we just said, ‘Hey, let’s do this ourselves.’ And it’s turned out fabulously. I’m just really excited about the way it’s turned out. It’s totally different. I think it’s a little bit more honest, as far as, y’know, this is exactly what we would play, when we would feel like playing it, as opposed to poring over it with too much production.”

The album was recorded at Willie Nelson’s Pedernales Studios, about 30 miles west of Austin, Texas. McCain’s explanation of how they ended up there is simple enough: “It was cheap. And our guitar player has a baby, and we just wanted him to be close to his family.”

Surprisingly, even though Austin was only about a half-hour away, McCain claims they never made a single road trip. “Nope. Not at all. We tracked the record in about 31 days, and we got it done. I was glad to be pretty far out. We knew what to expect, we stayed on task, we worked, and we got it done. I wish I could give you some more rock ‘n’ roll stories, but we cooked on a hot plate every night. It was state of the art, 1984. It’s a pretty cool place, but it was pretty boring.”

Still, though, the most important question about recording at Willie Nelson’s studio is, did you actually meet Willie Nelson?

“Y’know, he came through a couple of times, but I never actually met him.”

“Yeah, I was, like, thinking I was gonna hang out with him. But, then, I saw him there a few times, and, I just figured, y’know, Willie, he’s been through so much; why does he need to meet me? He’s already seen everybody.”

Far From Over features guest appearances on two songs by fellow singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin (on “Write Me A Song” and the album’s first single, “Hearts Fall”). “God, she’s awesome. She is amazing, man. I met her years ago, but I remember when I got her album, Fat City, I was just, like, ‘Whoa, this is the real thing!’ And to be able to work with her…? I tried real hard not to dork all over her the whole time she was there.”

Arguably one of the best songs on the new record is “Radio Star,” with its powerhouse pop feel and its no-holds-barred lyrics about VH-1’s “Behind The Music” and the bloated rock egos that appear in almost every episode…but McCain is unlikely ever to live down his comments about the song in the Lava/Atlantic press release for Far From Over.

“I was watching the Goo Goo Dolls on Behind The Music,” he said in the release, “and there’s poor Johnny Rzeznik, going, ‘Poor me! Waah-waah-waah!’ They were just complaining about everything, and I thought, ‘This is such malarkey!’ Then there was a whole segment about Johnny’s writer’s block and I about puked on myself laughing at how stupid it was! You’ve got to be kidding me! We live the most ridiculously privileged lives, and the worst they can come up with to gain sympathy for these idiots is writer’s block! Gimme a break! So I was sitting there laughing at him, with his chiseled chin and his hairdo and all that other crap, and the song popped out like 14 seconds later!”

Now, keep in mind that, in the very next paragraph, McCain clarified that he thought Rzeznik was an unbelievable songwriter and that the song wasn’t so much written ABOUT him as it was inspired during the Goo Goo Dolls episode. But, of course, that bit will probably be lost to the ages as quickly as whatever John Lennon said AFTER he commented that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus.

“I didn’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings,” McCain told Ninevolt. “It’s really not about Johnny Rzeznik. It’s an amalgam between the Goo Goo Dolls, Creed, and all the other contemporary and current bands that are on Behind The Music. It’s poking fun at everyone, including myself. I just think that, once you start having entertainment about entertainment, somebody’s got to make fun of that…and that’s my job! Somebody asked me how (the song) came about, and the truth of the matter is, I was watching the Goo Goo Dolls’ Behind The Music. It’s certainly not supposed to be directly related to him. I definitely don’t want to hurt poor Johnny’s feelings. I’ve heard through the grapevine that he’s a little pissed, but, obviously, I’m just hoping that he can take a joke. And, if he can’t, then he can go cry in a big bag of money. That’s basically how I’m approaching the whole thing!”

Hey, speaking of big bags of money, Edwin, remember when you recorded “I Could Not Ask For More,” written by the queen of top-40 songwriters, Diane Warren? You did that for free, then, didja?

McCain explodes in a mock sob, yelling, “They paid me! I was such a whore! It’s so true! I admit it, I totally admit it! They said it was gonna be for a soundtrack, and I was, like, ‘Really? You’re gonna pay me?’ And they paid me a bunch of money, so I was, like, okay, we’ll do it. Fuck. Money’s money, y’know?

“So, for as much as I can rag on anybody, man, I’m just as guilty of it all when it comes down to it. We got paid. I got my band some more loot, I got me some more loot, and that’s just kinda how it worked. So, yeah, I’m standing here in full hypocritical garb and it’s fantastic. Indie sensibility, hypocritical cloak. Isn’t that wonderful?

“But y’know what? My drummer’s kids will go to college, and so will my guitarist’s kids, and my bass player’s kid. And if it means that I’ve gotta do some shit along the way that I’m not super proud of, then, fine, whatever. There’s only a handful of people I know that can actually afford to have that kind of integrity, and y’know what? I’m just not Ani DiFranco. Never said I was.”

“What, all Diane Warren songs on one album and all originals on the other?” McCain laughs. “That’d be fantastic, wouldn’t it? To be honest with you, though, I didn’t even know who Diane Warren was. They were, like, ‘Diane Warren wants you to do one of her songs,’ and I was, ‘Who the fuck’s Diane Warren?’ And they had to explain it to me. ‘It’s for a soundtrack and it pays.’ ‘Fine, whatever. Send the check.’

“That’s probably why I like Far From Over as much as I do, actually. It’s, like, not produced. It is what it is. For so long in the industry, I was just doing whatever anybody told me I should do. Sure, I’ll do that! No problem! I’m your man! Whose ass do you want me to kiss today? Just for the sake of trying to maintain a career, y’know, but at the cost of being more honest and being myself. And this whole record is my trying to put together an antidote for all that.

“It’s either gonna be one of those things where people go, ‘Yeah, right on, that’s great,’ or, like, ‘Hey, we liked you better when you were phony!’ But it’s either gonna be one way or the other. It’s gonna be a make-or-break kind of thing, and that’s kind of what I was looking for, so, hopefully, it’ll work out.”

McCain is not, however, anticipating that his inevitable appearances on the talk show circuit will do a whole hell of a lot for the record. “You know, it’s really funny that, whenever we go on TV, it doesn’t do anything to our sales. It’s so funny. We’re the most anonymous band out there. It’s, like, ‘Who is that? Looks like Meatloaf’s cousin!’”

McCain last played ‘round these parts with Evan Dando (late of the Lemonheads) as his opening act…a pairing that had never happened before and hasn’t happened again since. “It was random. They hired him, they hired me; we didn’t even know. I spoke with him briefly (that day), but I didn’t really spend a whole lot of time (with him).”

Frankly, he’s far more excited about his next appearance in the area: at Harborfest on June 10th. “That’s gonna be awesome. I’ve played that a couple of times, but we get to play on the big stage that time. I’ve played (around Hampton Roads) for years and years.”

In fact, Gibb Droll was thanked in the liner notes for McCain’s album, Messenger. “Gibb’s out with me right now. Me and Gibb and Kevn (Kinney) play all the time; it’s fantastic. In fact, me and Kevn have been goin’ around in my little Cadillac…little? my BIG Cadillac…and playin’ gigs. You gotta love that. That guy right there’s a fucking triumph of songwriting.”